Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar has revealed the quickest bowler he has ever faced in his cricketing career. The legendary batter narrated an incident from a Test match between India and Australia in Sydney. The former India captain recalled how Jeff Thomson cranked up his speed following an incident with current Indian selector Chetan Chauhan.
"The quickest was Jeff Thomson," said Gavaskar during a show on SuperSport Cricket. "In Sydney, Australia had won the toss and batted and we dismissed them for 140 or something. Here, Tommo was in his whites even before tea. And it had just started to drizzle. Man, he was something. He was not happy about bowling at that stage."
"My opening partner Chetan Chauhan used to play this slash, that used to send the ball racing. And the team was teasing him about it. So he played that shot off Tommo and it went off the top edge, once ball into the boundary for four. In Sydney, the visitors' change room is closer to the action than the home team change room so when that boundary was hit, everyone got up and shouted 'Master'. We all could hear it. Chetan, recognizing that these guys are making fun, started to shake his head and laugh. But as he laugh, he made eye contact with Tommo in his follow through," added the 72-year-old.
Further narrating the incident, the former Indian opener said, "Tommo thought that he was laughing at him. So we went across and marked a cross on Chetan's helmet. He said, 'I am going to hit you there and then see if you laugh'. Chetan said 'you do what you want'. And I am from the non-striker's end and trying to tell him, 'Chetan, leave it.' I am speaking to him in Marathi and he tells me, I am a Rajput'. I don't take a backward step'. And after that, he was bowling like the wind. Everything was flying around. Unbelievable. That was the fastest spell I have faced."
Gavaskar belonged to an era of cricket where intimidating fast bowlers threatened to injure bowlers as proper helmets were yet to be introduced. There was the West Indies fast-bowling quartet of Malcom Marshall, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts and Michael Holding, along with the Australian duo of Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee. The fact that Gavaskar played without a helmet and excelled against these bowlers on their own soil speaks volumes of his talent. The right-handed batter was the first batter to 10,000 Test runs.